윤

Microsoft’s up to its tricks again. Now we’re supposed to believe their subscription model actually saves people money? Let’s see: four or five years of Live, you’ve already made up the price difference between a PS3 and under-equipped 360. Not to mention uncompensated RROD-time. And at least with Netflix we can rip the movies we borrow.

Last week’s experience with Redbox was the last straw: $1.07 (or $1.08, depending on where the higher taxes round to now) does not factor in the drive time and mileage between locations with faulty machines, 2/3 among the nearest Albertsons. A ratio only to worsen. So 老婆, she of the torrents and myself more at home on the Amazon, we decided finally to take the plunge—see what I’m doing here with the metaphors; it’d impress in high school English—and become a Netflix couple, which is surely some salient stage of household settlement.

I moved the Xbox to the big TV from the small monitor where it’d been running FFXI, and poorly at that, though the fault there’s less in the hardware than lazy programming from SquareEnix. That the app requires paid Gold membership, however, I’m not forgiving. Fuck them, a 48-hour code from 남재 proved streaming through Live (even with DD-WRT priority over a wired connection) is no superior to just hooking up my notebook on WiFi; in fact, Ping Pong Playa jumped after a ten-minute pause into YouTube resolution …speaking of which, that Jimmy Tsai sure looks like 송강호’s son. Oh, and those two White devils? Ted & Emmett from Queer as Folk.

Like The Prisoner, I come full circle. With my old 1080i monitor installed on my Anthro-wback at 老婆’s, Street Fighter revisits, first by way of infallible Super Famicom, then Xbox360 and when even Fighting Commander-maker Hori’s import-only controller failed with analog sticks that leave even less room for the critical cross pad, already requiring a stretch for short thumbs forced into place by the grip handles, I went back and forth setting the display for the PS3 before learning it’d auto-detect by holding down the power button.

This doesn’t strike me as much more than an upgrade from the HD’d Super Turbo, less so if I’m awed by how far we’ve come today with things such as Shazam and President Barack Obama; online play we had 15 years ago with XBAND. As I was telling 남재 before I left, by the time they realize my dream MMORPG-style incarnation where avatars represent our virtual fighting skills, he and I will be relegated to two of many expendable guards of some punk kid’s fortress dojo.